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Trump Trade Representative Attacks WTO for ‘Losing Focus’

Robert Lighthizer says trade organization should tackle state aid and overcapacity and put less emphasis on litigating trade disputes

By

Jacob M. Schlesinger

Dec. 11, 2017 12:39 p.m. ET

President Donald Trump’s chief trade adviser issued his first detailed criticism of the World Trade Organization Monday, blasting the global commercial arbiter for “losing its essential focus” and becoming “a litigation-centered organization” that has failed to pay sufficient attention to enforcing existing rules.

While U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer didn’t mention China by name, he made Beijing a clear target in his speech to fellow trade ministers of the 164-member body at its biannual meeting this week in Argentina.